A Business and Labour History of Britain : Case Studies of Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

By Bringing Together And Critically Engaging With Accounts Of Certain Themes In Business And Labour History, And Utilizing Original Research, This Book Aims To Widen Understanding Of Industrial Society And Provide A Background To Further Study And Research In The Area Management And Labour Relations History. Edited By Mike Richardson, Peter Nicholls. Cover......Page 1 Half title......Page 2 Also by Mike Richardson......Page 3 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 List of Illustrations......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Notes on Contributors......Page 11 The case studies......Page 14 The labour process......Page 16 The British economy and the power relations between business and labour, pre-1914......Page 18 Introduction......Page 22 Joint stock companies, engineers and salaried managers......Page 23 The transfer of military experience into a commercial setting......Page 26 Controlling labour, hierarchy and grades......Page 29 Paternalism, sectionalism and discipline......Page 31 Sustaining an extensive surplus......Page 34 The slow emergence of trade unions......Page 36 Conclusion......Page 40 3 Women, Mechanization and Cost Savings in Twentieth Century British Banks and Other Financial Institutions......Page 45 The origins of office mechanization and antecedents of computers in the British financial sector......Page 49 Attitudes to women clerks by male staff in the British financial sector......Page 51 Female employment in twentieth century Britain and its financial institutions......Page 57 What changed in interwar British banks?......Page 62 Conclusion......Page 65 4 Bliss Tweed Mill Strike 1913–14: Causes, Conduct and Consequences......Page 73 The historical development of Bliss Mill......Page 76 Changes in management style and managerial control......Page 78 Demands for union recognition and the subsequent conflict......Page 80 Reflections and conclusion......Page 88 5 Rapprochement and Retribution: The Divergent Experiences of Workers in Two Large Paper and Print Companies in the 1926 General Strike......Page 96 Dickinson before the General Strike......Page 97 The General Strike and its aftermath at Dickinson......Page 100 Robinson before the General Strike......Page 105 The General Strike and after at Robinson......Page 108 Conclusion......Page 111 Appendix 5.1: Regulations of the Union of the House of Dickinson......Page 112 Historical development of the firm......Page 120 Economic performance......Page 122 Labour management......Page 124 Mechanization and the division of labour......Page 129 Compositors and collective action......Page 133 Conclusion......Page 138 7 Organization, Ideology and Control – Founding Principles: The Case of the BBC......Page 143 Personal capitalism and the impact of war: issues for management control......Page 146 Class and the corporation: the influence of Reith......Page 147 Uncertainty, hierarchy and paternalism......Page 152 Consensus, control and labour representation......Page 155 The cosy duopoly, work organization and the development of television......Page 157 The battleground......Page 160 Neo-liberal reforms?......Page 162 Conclusion......Page 165 8 Taylorism in the Mines? Technology, Work Organization and Management in British Coalmining before Nationalization......Page 168 Work organization and mine management before the onset of mechanization......Page 170 Coal-cutters, conveyors and the ‘unit system’......Page 176 Colliery mechanization in the interwar period......Page 182 Conclusions and postscript......Page 187 Introduction......Page 195 Informality and localism: regulation and control on the shop floor......Page 196 Aerospace industry: piecework to measured day work (MDW)......Page 200 Automobile industry: piecework to measured day work......Page 205 Conclusion......Page 210 Index......Page 216 By bringing together and critically engaging with accounts of certain themes in business and labour history, and utilizing original research, this book aims to widen understanding of industrial society and provide a background to further study and research in the area management and labour relations history. The authors bring together historical case-study evidence from the public and private sectors to provide valuable insights in the field of work organization, the social relations of production and the detailed division of labour in some key British industries and workplaces between the 1830s and the 1990s. These studies reveal the constant ebb and flow of power and influence between capital and labour and the initiatives both sides took to defend their interests. Over this extended span of history such cases identify a series of constants that have come to reflect the unique qualities of the relationship between British capital and labour and the sectors and industries that have given this country such a distinctive and, as some might argue, skewed economic structure. Notwithstanding the diversity of these cases, extending over time, and place, the common thread which connects them is that they examine changes in aspects of the labour process, such as scientific management, mechanization, deskilling, micro-technology, gender division of labour, work organization and labour relations, in differing industries